Timelines

By the 1870s, about 100,000 Chinese immigrants were living and working in the U.S. While many men initially came alone as contract laborers for mining and railroad companies, beginning in the 1870s Chinese workers began arriving with their families. To prevent the growth of a Chinese American community, Congress passed the Page Act in 1875, ostensibly targeting women in prostitution. It was also used to exclude the wives and daughters of immigrants. Seven years later, the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed - the first piece of U.S. legislation to ban a specific ethnic group from entering the country. It was not until 1943 that the Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed.